
Luke Padfield
Associate

Most of my life has been lived in Edinburgh. In 1995, I moved to Glasgow where I attended the School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art.
After three years, I left Glasgow and returned to Edinburgh where I became a self-employed door to door salesman. This job took me to London where I spent two years in field sales. I returned to Edinburgh in 2000 to finish basic training in running a charity donor recruitment business and by 2001 I had established a small limited company. I took this business back to Glasgow where it ran for three years.
In 2004, I made the decision to return to University, this time to study Law. Given my age at the time, my qualifications were said to be ‘out of date’ so it was necessary to complete an access course. I was accepted on the LLB programme at the University of Edinburgh, beginning in September 2005. To support my studies, I worked as a part-time researcher at the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland. In 2007 I took part in the ERASMUS exchange programme and spent a year in France. I completed the LLB in 2009, writing a final dissertation on the law of Treason. The following year, I was accepted to study for an LLM in the theories and philosophies of Legal Research. My Masters dissertation was focused on the possibility of developing a ‘community right to a healthy environment’.
I left the University of Edinburgh in 2011 having graduated from the LLM programme. Since then, I have worked alongside, UN House Scotland, the Equalities and Rights Network and as a Parliamentary Researcher. As part of my work with UNHS, I spent some time on the fundraising team. When the organiser of Secure Scotland began talking about the project, I suggested applying to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
For me, the primary benefit of the Secure Scotland project, is to the maturation process of all those engaged with it.